EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL AGENTS - CHAPTER 10 docx

10 ©2000 CRC Press LLC Recent U.S. Incidents Involving Chemical Agents, Biological Materials, or Terrorist Actions INTRODUCTION Chemical and biological agents are most effective when employed against untrained or unprotected targets and victims. Civilian sites and innocent citizens offer the best targets for terrorist activities. Wherever you live or work, your best immediate protection against a terrorist act is a group of well-trained, fully equipped, and competently led first responders. On October 4, 1992, an Israeli El Al Boeing 747-200F cargo plane crashed into a large apartment building in Amsterdam killing 43 people as well as four crew members aboard the aircraft. On October 30, 1998, the Dutch newspaper, NRC Handelsblad , said the plane contained about 50 gallons of dimethyl methylphos- phonate (DMMP) and two other chemicals of the four required to make deadly sarin poison gas, the same chemical agent used in the subway incident in Tokyo on March 20, 1995. The DMMP, according to the newspaper, was enough to make over 500 pounds of sarin, and judging from the shipping papers was traveling from Solk- atronic Chemicals in Morrisville, PA to the Israeli Institute of Biological Research located in Ness Ziona near the city of Tel Aviv. The DMMP can also be used as a flame retardant in building materials, but the World Health Organization states it has induced cancer in laboratory mice. The Boeing also carried 800 pounds of depleted uranium. This type of uranium emits strictly low-level radiation, but, according to the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, it should be handled only by personnel wearing proper protective clothing as it can cause cancer. Laboratory tests done in 1998 on 15 persons who were near the crash site yielded four samples with high uranium content. Israel has never admitted to making chemical weapons; any nuclear capability they have is open to question. Israel signed the Chemical Weapons Convention Treaty in 1996, but it has not been ratified by the Israeli Cabinet. The Dutch started a parliamentary inquiry in late October of 1998. Ongoing investigations imply that the El Al crash was a mistake or an attempted cover-up. Several items are reported to have been lost, stolen, or destroyed. The voice and flight-data recorder was not recovered. Police video tapes were erased before inves- tigators had a chance to see them. Vital information related to the hazardous cargo ©2000 CRC Press LLC remained confidential for years, and even today information is still unavailable for 20 tons of the 114 tons of cargo. Many survivors told police, doctors, and investi- gators that hours after the crash, when Dutch police had cleared the area of all workers and members of the media, persons in “moon suits” jumped from a heli- copter into the debris searching for items of cargo rather than victims, and carried off such items in unmarked trucks. By mid-1998, 1200 residents of the Bijmermeer district of Amsterdam and safety workers assigned to the incident scene were complaining of physical and psychological ailments. TERRORIST ACTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES: FACT OR FANTASY? Across the midwest during 1994 and 1995, members of the Aryan Republican Army robbed 22 banks in 7 states from Nebraska to Ohio. On December 6, 1994, Claude Daniel Marks and Donna Jean Wilmott, both top ten fugitives of the F.B.I. and supporters of the Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN) and of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, a front for the extremist Weather Underground, surrendered to U.S. authorities. They had spent almost ten years living under aliases in Pittsburgh before they reappeared. On May 9, 1995, they both pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to violate laws prohibiting prison escape and other related activities. In 1985, Marks and Wilmott purchased from an undercover F.B.I. agent in Baton Rouge over 36 pounds of plastic explosives that they intended to use to help FALN leader Oscar Lopez escape from the U.S. penitentiary in Leavenworth, KS. The FALN is a clandestine, Puerto Rican terrorist group that since 1947 has been linked to over 130 bombings resulting in $3.5 million in damages, 5 deaths, and 84 injuries. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef was caught in Islamabad, Pakistan on February 7, 1995 and then charged in New York the next day for his alleged involvement in the February 26, 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Later, he was also indicted for conspiring to bomb Philippine Airlines Flight 434 and to bomb several other U.S. air carriers in the Far East. On February 28, 1995, after four members of a domestic extremist group manufactured the biological agent ricin with the intent to kill law enforcement officers, a Minneapolis jury convicted the members of a violating the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989. On March 9, 1995, one of the F.B.I.’s top ten fugitives, Melvin Edward Mays, a member of the Chicago El Rukns street gang, was arrested and charged with over 40 federal counts related to conspiracy to conduct terrorist activities on behalf of the government of Libya. Mays made the mistake of purchasing an inert light anti- tank weapon from an undercover F.B.I. agent. Other members of the gang were convicted as well, the first time in U.S. history that American citizens had been found guilty of planning terrorist acts on behalf of a foreign government in return for money. On April 12, 1995, Michael “Mixie” Martin, who was said to be a supporter of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA), pled guilty to conspiracy to obtain ©2000 CRC Press LLC munitions and weapons. He and two other PIRA supporters had conspired to pur- chase 2900 detonators in Tucson in 1989 and a stinger missile in Florida in 1990. Martin was sentenced to jail for 16 months and was deported in 1996. The other two men were sentenced to 19 months in prison for placing explosives in a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property, and aid of a foreign government and were deported in 1996. On April 19, 1995, a truck bomb made of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil destroyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and injuring hundreds, the deadliest terrorist act so far committed in the United States. On July 3, 1995, Rodney Coronado, who belonged to the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), was convicted of arson for a fire he started on February 2, 1992 at the Mink Research Facility at Michigan State University. He was sentenced to 57 months in jail, 3 years probation, and restitution of over $2,000,000. On October 9, 1995, the Sunset Limited passenger train derailed near Hyder, AZ killing one person and seriously injuring 12 others. Someone had tampered with the tracks, causing the train to derail. Investigators found four typed letters that mentioned the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the F.B.I., Ruby Ridge, and Waco and were signed by the “Sons of the Gestapo.” It remains unclear whether this incident was criminal sabotage or terrorism, but the F.B.I. is investigating this train wreck as a criminal matter and created a toll-free telephone number to appeal to the public for assistance. In Vernon, OK during November of 1995, the leader of an Oklahoma militia was arrested and charged with planning a bombing spree. Joseph Bailie and Ellis Hurst were convicted of attempting to blow up the Internal Revenue Service building in Reno, NV on December 18, 1995. A drum filled with 100 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil was found at the IRS building. In Spokane, WA from April to July 1996, three bible-quoting men committed bank robberies and burned the offices of various businesses. During July 1996, Federal agents arrested members of the so-called “Viper Militia” in Phoenix, AZ and seized over 300 pounds of ammonium nitrate, 70 automatic rifles, and 200 blasting caps. In the fall of 1996, an unexplained incident occurred at a Dallas hospital when muffins and doughnuts were treated with shigella which causes dysentery. Labora- tory staff were then sent e-mail messages inviting them to a free breakfast. A dozen of the 45 laboratory staff fell ill with severe intestinal symptoms. On September 24 and 25, 1996, roughly 600 contract workers at a Georgia Gulf plant that manufactures PVC (polyvinyl chloride) were modernizing a vinyl chloride monomer unit when they and six company employees were sprayed with a cool mist. Within hours, the workers’ skin began to blister in a delayed reaction. Some weeks later, analysts at OSHA’s technical center in Salt Lake City found that the chemical mist contained mainly nitrogen mustard agent as well as a smaller amount of sulfur mustard agent. The same results were confirmed by the U.S. Army’s Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. Both sulfur mustard (H and HD), and nitrogen mustard (HN-1) agents can contaminate through inhalation, eye contact, ©2000 CRC Press LLC skin contact, and ingestion. The U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Pre- ventive Medicine explains that “HD is H that has been purified by washing and vacuum distillation to reduce sulfur impurities. HD is a vesicant (blister agent) and alkylating agent producing cytotoxic action on the hematopoietic (blood forming) tissues … The rate of detoxification of HD in the body is very slow, and repeated exposure produces a toxic effect. The physiological action of HD may be classified as local and systemic. The local action results in conjunctivitis or inflammation of the eyes, erythema which may be followed by blistering or ulceration and inflam- mation of the nose, throat, trachea, bronchi, and lung tissue. Injuries produced by HD heal much more slowly and are more susceptible to infection than burns of similar intensity produced by physical means or by most other chemicals…” For protective equipment required to handle nitrogen mustard (HN-1), the Army says, “Mandatory — Wear butyl toxicological agent protective gloves. Wear chem- ical goggles as a minimum; use goggles and face shield for splash hazard. Wear full protective clothing of M3 butyl rubber suit with hood, M2A1 boots, M3 gloves, treated underwear, and M9 mask and coverall (if desired).” No one had donned such personal protective equipment prior to this incident. Georgia Gulf created mustard agents through an industrial process that handled ethylene dichloride (EDC), a liquid that attacks the liver, lungs, and kidneys and may cause cancer. Georgia Gulf paid a $103,000 fine to OSHA for its handling of hazardous chemicals. But two years later, the company is still making tris, better known as nitrogen mustard gas. Leading up to the September 24th incident, nitrogen mustard had collected as a solid in a device called a fin fan used to cool EDC and as a liquid in reactor 201. A company known as Hydro-Chem cleaned the clogged fin fan tubes with highly pressurized water allowing the residue to fall on contract workers who have now sued Georgia Gulf. The company had deactivated the “Dopp kettle” used to collect hazardous waste from the reactor, according to the workers’ lawyer. The kettle was taken out of service in the early 1980s because it did not work properly. The contract workers charged that Georgia Gulf failed to follow normal procedures by allowing them to be hydroblasted while they were working. A spokesman for the company said the company had no way of anticipating the risk because they did not know they were making tris. In a letter to the state Department of Environmental Quality, a Georgia Gulf engineer said, “there are a number of hazardous chemicals that are present in the reactor liquid,” and that “tris is by no means the most hazardous.” The Chemical Weapons Convention outlaws the formal manufacture of mustard gas, but does not ban manufacture as an unavoidable by-product of industrial production as long as the mustard gas does not represent more than 3% of the total product. In Atlanta during July of 1996 and February of 1997, pipe bombs exploded at Centennial Olympic Park, an abortion clinic, and a homosexual bar killing one and injuring more than 100. On November 9, 1996, TWA’s terminal at Kennedy Airport outside New York City was evacuated for an hour after shoes in a passenger’s bag were found to have traces of nitrate used in both bombs and fertilizer. An X-ray screen device showed potential for a bomb, and a specially trained dog confirmed the machine’s findings. ©2000 CRC Press LLC On January 26, 1997 at Tooele, UT, low levels of the nerve agent GB (sarin) were detected in an area of the Deseret Chemical Depot. Reportedly, no workers were in the area and no agent was released outside the facility. The plant had been processing nerve-agent-filled ton containers since January 17. In that period, 30 ton containers were drained and treated in the metal parts furnace, and 39,000 pounds of agent were destroyed in a liquid incinerator. During March of 1997 in Kalamazoo, MI, Federal police arrested a local militia activist for allegedly giving 11 pipe bombs to a government informant and plotting to bomb government offices , armories, and a television station. At Yuba City, CA in April 1997, police investigating an explosion that shattered area windows found 550 pounds of petrogel, a gelatin dynamite, kept by alleged militia members. Police arrested a “freeman” sympathizer after explosives stored outside his home exploded injuring the suspect and his two-year-old daughter. Several days later, two of the man’s friends were found with 500 pounds of explo- sives and detonating caps in a motor home. On April 8, 1997, air monitoring at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland found trace amounts of a nerve agent (tabun) after seven chemical rounds were detonated. All told, the facility destroyed 14 chemical rounds and 112 nonchemical rounds. The chemical rounds also included phosgene, a choking agent, and mustard, a blistering agent. The state was alerted and approved destruction of the final 7 chemical rounds two days later. Only 3 of 48 sensitive monitors near the detonation site picked up low amounts of tabun. Hand-held monitors detected no traces of the nerve agent, and monitors placed in homes five miles away showed no presence of the agent. On April 17, 1997, a leaking manila envelope was sent to B’nai B’rith, a national Jewish service organization in Washington, D.C. A threatening letter enclosed warned that the envelope contained deadly anthrax bacillus. The incident proved to be a hoax. The F.B.I. announced on April 22, 1997 that four people were arrested for plotting to blow up the Mitchell Energy and Development Corporation’s natural gas plant. The suspects wanted to kill police and to cover the robbery of an armored truck. The robbery, from which the group expected to net $2 million, was planned to obtain money to buy weapons for future terrorist activities. Dallas police worked with an informer who had infiltrated the group. The accused planned to attach three bombs to storage tanks, one easily visible and the other two concealed, and then call in a bomb report. They hoped that police would spot the visible bomb, but would be killed later when the two hidden bombs went off. In Denver on May 1, 1997, Ronald D. Cole, Wallace S. Kennett, and Kevin I. Terry were arrested after federal agents seized rocket fuel, land mines, AK-47s, and munitions from their rental home. Kennett and Cole said they are members of the Branch Davidians, a cult in which several members died when federal agents burned their headquarters in Waco, TX on April 19, 1993. Authorities declined to say whether arrests were related to the Oklahoma City bombing trial then underway in Denver’s federal courthouse. Prosecutors say Timothy McVeigh blew up the federal building in retaliation for the deaths of more than 80 Branch Davidians, and that in the months before the bombing in Oklahoma City, McVeigh attempted to purchase ©2000 CRC Press LLC rocket fuel. Cole distributed literature in Denver when McVeigh’s trail opened March 31, 1997. About 14,000 people who received significant doses of radioactive material from the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, near Richland in southern Washington state, between 1945 and 1951 should be found and offered regular medical evaluations according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. This govern- ment agency says the U.S. Department of Energy should sponsor the program to look for thyroid cancer and other radiation-related conditions affecting the gland. The monitoring program is estimated to cost $4 million, plus an estimated $9.6 million to operate in its first year. These costs would not include funds for medical care. Mir Aimal Kansi, suspected as the lone gunman who killed two CIA agents in front of the Central Intelligence Agency building in Langley, VA, was captured in Pakistan on June 7, 1997 and brought back to the United States. Actually, he was “bought” out of Pakistan. The CIA paid $3.5 million to the fugitive’s own body- guards for his return. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection announced in June 1997 that virtually all private wells in South Jersey are delivering radioactive water and should be tested to determine the severity the problem. The state printed thousands of booklets called, “The Homeowner’s Guide to Radioactive Drinking Water” and made them available through county health departments. The booklet tells readers that “exposure to radium over a long period of time is believed to increase one’s lifetime risk of cancer,” including bone and sinus cancer. The con- tamination is thought to come from ancient rocks in the Cohansey Aquifer and has been affecting the water for thousands of years. During June of 1997, police arrested two brothers wanted for a shooting incident with Ohio police officers near Cincinnati. A search of their vehicle produced weap- ons, bulletproof vests, F.B.I. baseball caps, and U.S. marshal badges. One of the brothers was charged with possession of weapons that had been stolen allegedly from an Arkansas gun dealer found murdered along with his wife and daughter in June of 1996. In July of 1997, the U.S. Army planned to transport 241,328 “binary” chemical weapons (two chemicals that must be mixed together to form a deadly tool; weapons in storage contain only one of these chemicals) from storage space at the Umatilla Weapons Depot in Oregon to an ammunition plant in Hawthorne, NV for destruction. The project will take several years to complete. Every week six trucks will each carry 400, 155 mm, chemical projectiles designed to be fired by cannon. Each truck will be tracked by satellite carried on-board. At Fort Hood, TX in July of 1997, an antigovernment group was planning an attack on the fort acting under the impression that Army bases are training United Nations troops to stage a coup. Seven people were arrested and machine guns and pipe bombs were seized. An emergency alarm system was shut down for at least five days on July 22, 1997. The Oregon Emergency Management Agency oversees the operation of 42 sirens and 9 reader boards as part of the Chemical Stockpile Preparedness Program’s outdoor warning system at the Umatilla Chemical Depot near Hermiston. The ©2000 CRC Press LLC emergency system linked to the Army nerve gas storage area was shut down in two counties when air-cooling systems overheated at two or three remote transmission sites and caused “irregularities” in the system’s operation. On August 5, 1997 in Washington, D.C., two Pentagon Defense Protective Service security guards wrestled to the ground an apparently deranged man, Steve Maestas of Covina, CA. Maestas had pulled a loaded gun and tried to enter the Pentagon with a knapsack full of 12 ten-round clips of 9 mm ammunition. This was his third attempt to enter the building during the morning rush hour. On August 10, 1997 in Westminster, CA, a man was killed by a bomb in a parcel he found outside his residence. William Bays died from massive chest and head injuries. Two friends who were standing nearby suffered ear injuries but were otherwise unharmed. The package was not mailed or delivered by a package service, but it reportedly had a name on it. A hail of metal fragments tore through a cluttered garage where the package was opened, leaving stored items peppered with small holes. No motive or suspects are known. On August 13, 1997 in Wheeling, WV, Floyd “Ray” Looker pleaded guilty to selling copies of blueprints of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s fingerprint complex to what he believed was a terrorist group that planned to blow up the center. He sold the copies for $50,000 to an undercover F.B.I. agent. James “Rich” Rogers, a firefighter accused of making the photocopies of the blueprints, is scheduled to stand trial. On August 19, 1997 in Colebrook, NH, Carl Drega, 67, apparently became incensed by local government officials in northern New Hampshire. He went on a rampage with an AR15 rifle and killed two state troopers, a District Court Judge, and a newspaper editor. Drega then burned his house. He fled to Brunswick, VT, wounding a New Hampshire Fish and Game officer on the way, and established an ambush site. A police dog warned police that something was wrong, but three officers were wounded before finally killing Drega. When officials visited his isolated property in the town of Columbia, NH they found 86 empty pipe bombs, 400 pounds of ammonium nitrate, 61 gallons of diesel fuel to set it off, gunpowder, three Kevlar helmets, one semiautomatic rifle, a maze of tunnels, and birdhouses wired with electronic listening devices. Drega had a long-running feud with local officials over property rights and other issues, and after the incident officials worried about his activities as an employee at local nuclear power plants (Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim, and Indian Point). On September 5, 1997 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed an inquiry “to determine if the access programs, as implemented, iden- tified information that should have precluded Drega from being granted unescorted access,” and reported the three nuclear plants had followed federal security regula- tions. On August 29, 1997, indictments were returned in New York charging Gazi Ibrahim Abu Mezer, 23, and Lafi Khalil, 22, with conspiring to explode a pipe bomb in the New York City subway. Their confederate and roommate informed police of their location and plans to detonate bombs in the busy Atlantic Avenue subway station and on a commuter bus. Prosecutors stated that a global investigation failed to link the plot to any known terrorist group. Mezer and Khalil were arrested in a Brooklyn apartment on July 31, 1997 where police found components of one or ©2000 CRC Press LLC more pipe bombs. Both suspects were shot during their arrest when one of them reportedly tried to reach a nail-studded device resembling a pipe bomb. Abu Mezer had been detained by federal authorities earlier in the year, but was given 60 days of freedom — until August 23, 1997 — when he was arrested with Lafi Khalil for planning to bomb the New York City subway. In the previous months, Mezer had been caught trying to illegally cross the border from Canada to the United States three times. However, Canada refused to accept him back the third time, and Mezer subsequently requested political asylum in the United States. On October 1, 1997, a leaking container of hazardous pesticide — one of ten 50-pound bags illegally placed on an American Airlines passenger aircraft — pro- duced fumes and sickened passengers at Miami International Airport just before takeoff to Ecuador. The passengers were evacuated and put on another flight. The ten packages were covered with plastic wrapping that hid the “Hazardous Materials” labels, they were not packaged securely, and they contained an amount of Dowicide A pesticide more than 200 times the maximum permitted on a passenger flight (a passenger is allowed to bring 2.2 pounds of Dowicide on a flight if it is properly packaged and labeled). A courier paid $800 in extra baggage fees for 22 bags and boxes, ten of which contained Dowicide. The courier told the F.B.I. what he earned for his work: a $100 discount on his airline ticket. On October 1, 1997 in Pearl, MS, 16-year-old Luke Woodham was the first to start a series of killings in U.S. high schools and middle schools that has continued to the present day. He killed his mother at home; then he went to his high school and killed three students and wounded seven. Six marines from Camp Lejuene, one captain, and seven civilians were arrested on October 16, 1997 after a nationwide investigation of the misappropriation of military weapons including rocket launchers, machine guns, mines, mortars, and grenades. Five marines held in custody are suspected of independently hiding extra weapons from training exercises and seeking buyers. Federal agents acting as mid- dlemen bought the stolen explosives and other weapons and then sold them to gun enthusiasts searching for greater firepower. Republic of Texas leader Richard McLaren and top lieutenant Robert Otto were convicted October 31, 1997 of abducting a couple. The incident led to a week-long armed standoff with authorities. McLaren and Otto were found guilty of organized criminal activity in the April 27, 1997 abduction that lasted until May 3, 1997 when as many as 300 state troopers and Texas Rangers caused them to lay down their guns. In November of 1997, skinheads in Denver, CO shot at cops and bystanders, killing an African immigrant and a police officer. During November of 1997, E. coli bacteria was discovered in hoses used to fill water tanks on Amtrak trains at a maintenance facility in Miami, FL after routine tests found bacteria in train drinking water. The hoses were replaced and water tanks on 250 passenger rail cars were flushed and disinfected. The Army’s chemical weapons incinerator at the Deseret Chemical Facility in Tooele County was cited on November 17, 1997 for 25 state hazardous-waste regulations identified during its first year of operation. None of the violations was serious enough to warrant closing the facility noted the Utah Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste, and most were discovered by workers and reported to the state. ©2000 CRC Press LLC Some of the most serious violations carry fines of up to $10,000 per incident. The most serious incident probably occurred on January 26, 1997 when doors left open for maintenance work allowed chemical agent to leak into an observation corridor. On December 1, 1997, Michael Carneal, age 14, killed three of his fellow students at a morning prayer meeting in West Paducah, KY. Another student was able to overcome Carneal when he stopped to reload. On December 12, 1997 in Little Rock, AR, two white supremacists were charged with murder, racketeering, and conspiracy for planning to overthrow the federal government and replace it with an Aryan People’s Republic. Also on December 12, 1997 in Philadelphia, PA, a man was charged with leaving pipe bombs at various businesses and painting swastikas on politicians’ offices. On the weekend of December 13, 1997, 600 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer mixed with fuel oil were stolen from Jerico Services Facility in Weeping Water, NE. Twelve 50-pound bags trade-named “Pellite” were missing from a semitrailer, although no dynamite or blasting caps which could be used as detonators were missing from the site. The Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has posted a $5000 reward for information, and can be called at 1-888-ATF-BOMB. In December 1997, a ship carrying three containers of methyl bromide, a poisonous gas, was met at Port Elizabeth, NJ by state and federal authorities after crew members of the Teval reported an odor during a crossing from Spain. The ship flying the flag of Malta was halted at Ambrose Light while a commercial response contractor hired by Lykes Lines went aboard and conducted a series of air quality tests outside the containers. All tests were negative, and the ship was allowed to dock at Port Elizabeth. Recently, the media has touted irradiation as a solution to food contamination. In the mid to late 1980s, the U.S. Department of Energy sent hundreds of radiation- containing capsules around the country to attempt to find an industrial use for radioactive strontium and cesium waste they had stockpiled after 50 years of making nuclear weapons. The department did not want to call the radioactive materials “wastes” or to develop a disposal plan. The central idea to this effort was to use such radiation for sterilizing food or medical instruments. In 1988, at an irradiation plant in Decatur, GA, one capsule developed a pinhole leak and 0.02% of its contents escaped. The D.O.E. spent more than four years and $47 million to clean up the leak and make the facility safe once again. All the capsules sent around the country were brought back to the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site at Richland, WA to be tested. Since 1988, 16 of approximately 2000 capsules have failed the test and have been segregated. Maintenance for all the capsules costs about $10 million a year. The D.O.E. was to decide by the end of 1997 whether to declare the waste as “waste.” On February 12, 1999, the Department of Agriculture Secretary announced at a meeting of the National Beef Cattlemen’s Association in Charlotte, NC that his department has approved the controversial process for using nuclear energy to treat potentially contaminated meat. On December 18, 1997 at the Malton Canada Post office in Toronto, a letter carrier noticed a hole in a parcel that was labeled as containing at least 17 different infectious bacteria including influenza, gonorrhea, and hepatitis. A spokesman for the Toronto local chapter of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers stated that ©2000 CRC Press LLC management did not take any precautionary measures, and that it was an employee who called 911 and the fire department. Only after police and firefighters arrived at the postal station were workers told to leave the building. The package was traveling from Minnesota to PML Microbiologicals in Mississauga, Ontario. Labels on the package noted that if the package was damaged, the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta should be called. The Canada Post bans perishable biological substances “except when sent between officially recognized laboratories.” The hole was in an outside package, and the inner package had not leaked. A vice-president with the union local said, “I never thought they would allow something like this through the mail.” In January of 1998 at Riverside, CA, a former Air Force Ordnance expert who worked as a safety and quality control officer for Allied Technology Group was charged with second-degree murder for allegedly allowing a live military shell to be taken from the cleanup of live-fire areas at the Army National Training Center at Fort Irwin and to be delivered to Dick’s Auto Wrecking in Fontana as scrap metal. One 105-millimeter shell exploded and killed a worker who was attempting to dismantle it with a blowtorch. The safety officer falsely certified that he had inspected demilitarized scrap and concluded it no longer contained explosive mate- rial. County and federal investigators found 54 additional pieces of live ammunition at the Fontana wrecking yard, including 30 that were considered potentially lethal if they exploded. The defendant was held in jail on $250,000 bail. The Salt Lake Tribune reported in its January 1, 1998 issue that a newly uncovered document shows the U.S Army had conclusive proof a deadly nerve agent (Agent VX) was in grass and snow eaten by 6000 sheep that died in Skull Valley in 1968. Agent VX is a colorless to amber liquid with no noticeable odor, a vapor density of 9.2, and a median lethal dosage of 100 (mg-min/m 3 ). It has very high eye and skin toxicity, its rate of action is very rapid, and it produces casualties when inhaled or absorbed. The Army had proof for many years that the nerve agent was found where the 6000 sheep died in western Utah on March 14, 1968 — apparently after a low-flying aircraft sprayed nerve agent in a target area at the Dugway Proving Ground about 27 miles west of Skull Valley. “Agent VX was found to be present in snow and grass samples that were received approximately three weeks after the sheep incident,” said a newly-located report prepared in 1970 by the Army’s Edge- wood Arsenal and obtained by the Salt Lake Tribune . The 1970 report concluded, “…it is possible that the quantity of VX originally present was sufficient to account for the death of the sheep.” The military still refuses to accept responsibility for the accident. However, federal testing of recently discovered sheep burial pits at Skull Valley is scheduled to begin within the next few months, 30 years after the deaths. A Middlebury College freshman appeared in U.S. District Court in Burlington, VT on January 7, 1998 to answer to charges of handling explosives after his duffel bag was found smoking at an airport in St. Louis. A St. Louis County bomb squad checked the bag and found homemade explosives that were sensitive to friction and impact. The student, Timothy Boarini, of Iowa City, was allowed to continue his trip without the bag, and filed a claim for missing luggage. Early in the morning of his court appearance, he was picked up by the F.B.I. at his dormitory room. If convicted, the student could be jailed for up to ten years and fined $250,000. [...]... weapons, cut -and- run shooting, night-time assaults, hand -to- hand combat, and martial arts He was also charged with dumping assault rifles in the Delaware River He even used his U.S Fish and Wildlife Service van to transport his trainees Five of the eight trainees were eventually convicted of plotting to bomb the New York headquarters of the United Nations, the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels, and the George... scene, sent to a hospital where potential victims were placed in an isolation room, and then interviewed by F.B.I agents The letter was sent to a local laboratory and tested A federal grand jury in Newark, NJ stated on March 24, 1998 that Daniel J Malloy, a wealthy military weapons supplier, and Joseph Balakrisha Menom, a coconspirator in Singapore, conspired to ship to Iran 20 batteries needed to power... of 1998, a four-year-old boy was caught for a second time bringing a loaded handgun to a day-care center to show his classmates He had possession of a 9 mm automatic gun with one bullet in the chamber and another 13 bullets in the magazine At 3:20 a.m Monday, March 30, 1998, an improperly drained nerve-gas bomb caused an automatic shutdown of a $650 million chemical weapons incinerator at ©2000 CRC... Ralph Bock of Brighton and reportedly found a machine gun, a pipe bomb, and hand grenades The suspects were held without bail until their trial The suspects, members of the ©2000 CRC Press LLC “New Order,” reportedly planned to rob banks and armored cars to acquire funds, to bomb public buildings, to kill a prominent Southern Poverty Law Center lawyer and an unidentified federal judge, and to contaminate... front entrance of the nation’s Capitol building, known as the “Document Door.” In the ensuing gun battle, he killed two police officers and wounded a tourist Weston was wounded in the chest, shoulder, thigh, and buttocks inside the offices of House Majority Whip Tom DeLay In Morgantown, WV, 25 tons of ammonium nitrate disappeared from Bruceton Farm Supplies located in Preston County on July 29, 1998 The... 43, and Oliver Dean Emigh, 63, on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction Federal prosecutors accused them of threatening to use biological weapons against the Internal Revenue Service director, the Federal Bureau of Investigation director, Attorney General Janet Reno, and President Bill Clinton Prosecutors presented no witnesses to support their contention that the three men posed a... federal responsibility to fund local fire service preparedness and response to natural or technological catastrophic events Funding would include equipment, training, and staffing needs Federal resources would enable the local fire service agencies, as first responders, to act in a safe and timely manner to minimize injuries, loss of life, and damage to property In Eugene, OR on October 15, 1998, Jeffery... an immediate automatic shutdown of the metal parts furnace To date, the facility has destroyed 386 of the 4077 MC-1 bombs abandoned at the facility On May 8, 1998, ATF (U.S Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) agents stated that four men in central Florida planned to use pipe bombs to create confusion while they robbed banks A federal court complaint indicated that 14 bombs were to be used on major... major highways in the City of Orlando, including some along the access road to Walt Disney World Suspects included Todd Vanbiber, Brian Pickett, Christopher Norris, and Deena Wanzie Some bombs had already been made using timers and batteries In Springfield, OR on May 21, 1998, Kip Kinkel, age 15, killed his parents at home and then went to school to kill two students and wound 22 others When apprehended,... Nations and shipped by the Air Force to a Navy base for shipment to an Army laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Grounds for analysis The Navy was unaware they were transporting the remnants of biological weapons into the United States, so they responded as they would to any emergency biological incident In Brownsville, TX on July 1, 1998, federal marshals arrested Johnny Wise, 72, Jack Abbott Grebe Jr., 43, and . terrorists, followers of Sheikh Omar Abdel- Rahman, training them in assault weapons, cut -and- run shooting, night-time assaults, hand -to- hand combat, and martial arts. He was also charged with. pled guilty to conspiracy to obtain ©2000 CRC Press LLC munitions and weapons. He and two other PIRA supporters had conspired to pur- chase 2900 detonators in Tucson in 1989 and a stinger. Fort Irwin and to be delivered to Dick’s Auto Wrecking in Fontana as scrap metal. One 105 -millimeter shell exploded and killed a worker who was attempting to dismantle it with a blowtorch. The